It’s the time of year when Dave Kelleher moves from a car guy to one of Santa’s little helpers – figuratively, anyway.
Kelleher, the owner of David Dodge on Route 202 in Chadds Ford Township, is now in his eighth year of working with Adopt A Child, a charity administered by City Team Ministries in Chester.
And for the eighth year, Kelleher is coordinating efforts to get Christmas gifts for the kids of families who can’t afford to buy them.
Unlike some other Christmas-time charities, donors know who the recipients will be.
“We get a list of names, the Santa’s list, 100 at a time, and when we satisfy that list, we get another 100 names,” Kelleher said.
As he explained it, City Team vets the families who apply, and then lists those families with the names of the children and the gifts they would like. Donors may then either buy the gifts and bring them to the David Dodge showroom, or they can donate a recommended $50 to $75. The people at the front desk at the showroom will help with the paperwork.
Money donations are sent to City Team, which then takes care of getting the gifts.
Donors may also go to the David Dodge website — www.drivedavid.com — and click through the slide show until they get to the Adopt A Child banner, then click on that for instructions. Or, phone the dealership at 888-897-1901.
Either way, “it gives you the knowledge that the child has Christmas morning because of you,” he said. “Some people overdo it, which is nice.”
Last year, Kelleher’s efforts brought in gifts for more than 300 families. City Team helped more than 2,500 families in total. If there’s a shortfall on donations from his efforts at the dealership, Kelleher makes up the rest on his own, he said.
According to Kelleher, while the economy seems to be improving, donations are slower this year for some reason.
“We’re up against it. Thanksgiving was late. We’re going to be working on this until Friday [Dec. 10]. By Friday, I have to get everything to City Team. Right now we just knocked off our first 100 and just started our second 100. That’s behind where we usually are at this point, so the need is pretty immediate,” he said.
Kelleher would like any would-be donors to get in touch before Friday.
“We’ll make it so easy. Even if they have a partial donation, we would honor that as well. If all they have is $25, we’ll honor that, but at $50, we can definitively make sure the children are taken care of. And the donors will know who they donated for,” he said.
Kelleher is also involved with other charitable work, giving away coats for underprivileged kids and helping to provide Thanksgiving meals to those in need.
He said this year’s coat drive was a record with 248 coats being given out and also buying all the cake mix City Team needed to give to 1,200 families for their Thanksgiving dinners.
“When you have a partner like City Team Ministries,” Kelleher said, “you can leave your charity to them. They do much better work than I could ever do on my own.”
Kelleher has said in the past that he believes in giving back to the community. He said he was raised that way and admits it’s a matter of good karma, too.
(Photo: Dave Kelleher, of David Dodge in Chadds Ford, has been teaming up with City Team Ministries of Chester to provide Christmas gifts to needy children for the past eight years.)
About Rich Schwartzman
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
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